They say a picture is worth a thousand words. That’s just as well, because the greater the scandal, the briefer the utterance we get out of the FEI. I refer of course, to the hideous image of Splitters Creek Bundy perched on his shattered forelegs at the CEN in Abu Dhabi on January 31st, which the […]
Given the catastrophic issues raging in another equestrian sport, the Kiwi eventing community are lucky that the only thing apparently exercising them at the moment is whether or not Andrew Nicholson should be reinstated on the NZ performance squad, after an altercation in a very fraught situation that any other grown-ups would have sorted out […]
The initials CSI can apply to both the official FEI abbreviation for an international jumping show, and the name of a global TV crime franchise.
A couple of posts ago, I remarked that anyone who searched randomly through the FEI database was likely, within 20 minutes, to chance upon a horse whose provenance did not stack up. This followed revelations about the failed FEI investigation into whether dressage horse Wily Earl and the three-years-younger Golden Coin were one and the same, […]
Global Champions Tour: On September 29th, GCT sent out a promotional video of Scott Brash and Ludger Beerbaum effusing about a new GCT teams concept set to “revolutionize” their sport. I have to say I felt they were busking it a bit, the absence of detail leaving the rumour-mill to hypothesize that riders can be […]
On Saturday, I went National Hunt racing to support a friend’s horse. He was caught on the line for third place, but connections were thrilled as he has come back from a couple of niggles last year and runs and jumps better every time. At 15-1, it was also a profitable each-way bet. This prodded […]
Here is another “doppelganger” allegation reported to the FEI early in 2012 and investigated, until apparently fizzling out by the end of that year. The “paper trail” is still hiding in plain sight on the FEI database today. A chestnut called Wyatt Earp 25, a Bavarian by Weltrang L and born on March 1, 1995, […]
One of my all-time favourite films is All The President’s Men, about the Washington Post reporters Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, who unravelled the Watergate scandal and ultimately forced the resignation of Richard Nixon. Woodward had a source known as “Deep Throat,” whom he met in a basement garage.* Deep Throat never gave away solid […]
Sheikh Hamdan, Crown Prince of Dubai, will face no action over the “Marmoog” horse swap allegations after the FEI announced today that “no legal action can be taken for procedural reasons and due to a lack of conclusive evidence.” However, the FEI has simultaneously announced that as a result of “loopholes” found by the investigation, it […]
Candidates for the FEI presidency have now published their manifestos, but even with this belated opportunity to widen debate into issues rather than personalities, Ingmar de Vos is still getting flak. The current FEI secretary general has controversial ambitions to change FEI statutes so that, if elected, he becomes the first salaried president. Swiss rival […]
